“ENCA is a clear example of how the state fails to manage a process so that an investment can reach its final goal. Investments such as ENCA’s investment are necessary,” Tazo Datunashvili, a member of Lelo - Strong Georgia, said in response to the decision of a federal judge in Washington, who ordered Georgia to pay Turkish company Enka Renewables LLC $350 million, plus interest, as compensation over the suspended Namakhvani HPP project.

According to Tazo Datunashvili, a government that cannot facilitate investment is “idle and incapable.”

“The government has one primary function in such a situation: to facilitate investment and create the appropriate environment for that investment to be implemented, reach completion and achieve its main objectives - contribute taxes to the budget and create jobs.

When a government cannot accomplish this, that government is idle. When a government cannot conduct so-called risk assessment in a way that properly accounts for every social and political aspect of an investment, that government is incapable.

When government clans are at each other’s throats, draining each other of blood in order to keep track of who has how much from corrupt deals, who has received too much and who has not; when the state is not functioning and is instead consumed by this hysteria, lies, myths and conspiracy theories, it becomes clearly evident in such colossal sums of money that we failed to implement the investment with ENCA.

Yet Georgia needs energy independence. Georgia currently purchases electricity from abroad, and this is a problem in our region.

ENCA is a clear example of how the state fails to manage a process so that an investment can reach its final goal. Investments such as ENCA’s are necessary. They need to be carried out in the right manner, but that too is the state’s responsibility - to play the proper intermediary role between society, the people and investors.

Georgian Dream has failed to accomplish this even once, and this is a clear example of how foreign direct investment in Georgia has effectively been brought down to a near-zero level,” Tazo Datunashvili said.

For the record, a federal judge in Washington ordered Georgia to pay Turkish company Enka Renewables LLC $350 million, plus interest, as compensation over the suspended Namakhvani HPP project, bringing the total compensation to more than $400 million.

According to bpn.ge, this is stated in a September 11 decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which was published on the Justia U.S. Law website. The decision was signed by Judge Amit P. Mehta.

The court ruling concerns Georgia’s attempt to suspend court proceedings related to the enforcement of an arbitration award, which followed the Georgian government’s termination of the $800 million Namakhvani HPP project.